“Hey Em! Look, it’s a door!” my sister said to me.

“Ky, I know but we can’t go in there Grandpa Bob said,” I reminded her.

“Oh, come on. Nothing will happen. I just want to see what’s in there. Please can we just go in?” Ky pleaded.

“Well, okay. Let’s just peek in and see what’s in there,” I responded nervously.

Finally I gave in to my little sister’s dare and I opened the door to see another world in front of my eyes. What have I just entered? Will I be able to get back? Oh no. What have we done? I worried. There were mattresses, ladders, and many wood working tools. As I looked around I couldn’t find a path that I’d be able to walk through. The floor was missing pieces and nails were sticking out of the wooden floor boards that are left. In the distance I swore I saw a trap door, waiting to snatch me and bring me into another dimension. I couldn’t see the end of the room, it just continued with endless adventures. Hidden, I heard birds chirping from the rafters up above my head.

At our Grandpa Bob and Grandma Pat’s, the barn was a place we could always go to. The barn itself was an endless adventure. I don’t think it actually ever ended, it just continued into… well my sister and I actually never found that out. We could be anywhere and be anyone we wanted in that barn. Being a different person was too easy, it was an open stage and we were the actors. It was a whole different place to us, which left the opportunity wide open. We would examine each and every antique trying to figure out what it was. Then we played guessing games and had contests to figure out the identity of each item. We always found a special value in each antique somehow, finding our favorite one, wishing we could keep it. However we knew that the next week it may not be there and had been sold in the upcoming auction. This never excited us, but we learned to get use to it.
Before I got to the end of the mystery room my sweet, jolly Grandma Pat yelled to us to get our lunch, “Emily! Kylie! Come inside!” I sprinted out of the barn into the brisk fall air. Then I ran across the driveway up the four steps swinging open the screen door. I really hope they didn’t find out we opened the door! While looking back at my sister I said, “Ky, play cool! Nothing happened in there!”

Across from the barn was the house; whenever I entered the house I felt like I was entering a palace. The second my foot hit the carpet my long haired golden brown dog (or so I told my sister it was mine), greeted me with a wet kiss. “Shh, don’t tell them,” I whispered, knowing he knew what I was up to. Turning to the electric stove I wiped off my barn dirtied hands and rubbed them together to keep them warm. As I headed toward the kitchen I walked past my Grandpa Bob staring at the screen, intently watching cop chases. After I picked up my bologna sandwich and headed back to the living room, I sat on my Grandpa Bob’s lap to join in on the excitement of Cops. Once my sandwich was done I got the comb, scissors and spray bottle; time to give my Grandpa Bob a make over. I grabbed the spray bottle of water and got his hair nice and wet. Taking the scissors I pretended to cut a few pieces here and there(he wouldn’t let me play again if I actually cut his hair). Combing from side to side, front to back, I tried to find the perfect look. Once I knew I’ve done an amazing job I found the mirror and showed him my masterpiece.

After he loved his new make over I went into the right side of the living room to try to beat the latest pinball high score set by my older brother on Thanksgiving. In the dining room is the slot machine with an endless bucket of nickels. I have the excitement of playing without the disappointment of losing money. In the office I could use my creativity to draw pictures to hang and give to my Grandpa Bob. Intrigued by all the different pens, pencils, Post Its, and other office items, I drew with all different pens and pencils and stuck Post Its everywhere.

On the right side of the house was the yard that was the size of two football fields; full of endless opportunities. Riding the lawn mower with my Grandpa Bob were my first steps into learning how to drive. There was always an offer by my Grandma Pat to help her pick vegetables in the garden. On the porch we would eat meals on warm summer nights. We brought our toys on the porch and enjoyed the sunshine. Being inside on a nice day was never an option. Playing in the driveway, riding our bikes and scooters, however was a frequent activity. No one would ever know that they weren’t my actual grandparents. Looking on they were just like my actual grandparents, not my babysitting. I met them as Pat and Bob but they will always be Grandma Pat and Grandpa Bob.

My favorite part of the whole house was resting on the enormous willow tree in the middle of the lawn. It was big enough to keep an elephant out of the sun. I would sit with my sister for hours, neither of us speaking a word; we knew we were safe. Our thoughts and worries seemed to disappear when we were under that tree. Nothing could even phase us, there was no more bad left in our lives. We escaped the instability of our lives with our parents. There was no more worries of if we would eat dinner that night, or if we would be alone when we went to bed. All that it was giving was love, comfort, and hope. It was a place where all our worries and problems would drift away in the worry tree, rise up into the leaves and leave our kingdom.